Building management is one of the hottest markets in efficiency—and Serious already has 60 customers lined up. SEC forms reveal a $56 million round.

UPDATE: Serious Materials has quietly invaded the building management market.

The company — primarily known for green building products like eco-friendly drywall and insulating windows — has developed a software-as-a-service for monitoring and lowering energy consumption in commercial buildings. The nub of the software comes from an undisclosed acquisition. (Update: we wrote the story Friday and today learned the name of the company is Valence Energy.) Serious already has 60 customers and some of them have multiple buildings, said CEO Kevin Surace.

The offering consist of two products: Serious Energy Manager and Serious Insight. On average, the tools can curb energy consumption by 5 percent to 15 percent. One customer has curbed energy consumption by 18 percent in two months, he said. The software monitors everything — lights, air conditioners, heaters, etc. — but only directly controls a few appliances at the current juncture. Most of the savings come from pinpointing inefficiencies and fixing them. Over time, automation will be increased, and you could see how these tools could be plugged into demand response systems.

Like the building management tools from Scientific Conservation, EnerNoc and BuildingIQ, Serious’ software is compatible with the existing building management systems. Specifically, it plugs into systems marketed by Cisco and Echelon.

“You walk into a meeting with a large building owner and the first thing they tell you is that they don’t want to work with a startup.”

We will have more when the official announcement comes on Monday.

Building management, particularly commercial building management, has been one of the strongest sectors in green technology for the last year or so. Having deals with 60 customers clearly makes Serious a prominent player.

Nonetheless, the shift will likely raise some eyebrows in Silicon Valley. Anytime you raise over $100 million, shift or add to the basic strategy and seek more money, the questions are inevitable. Serious came to prominence with EcoRock, a version of drywall that takes very little energy to make. Back in 2008, Serious was talking about building a commercial factory for EcoRock.

The U.S. and other nations have also failed to pass cap and trade laws. EcoRock does not insulate or curb power consumption in buildings. It curbs the energy consumed by manufacturers. Without carbon taxation, the economic argument for EcoRock becomes more difficult.

The company’s window business, however, is thriving, he said. Serious, for instance, won the contract to install its insulating windows in the Empire State Building. “It is a great time to be in windows,” he said.

Software actually marks a return to home base for Surace and company founder Marc Porat. Both came out of General Magic, a 1990s company that tried to popularize the smart phone before its time. General Magic may have gone down in flames, but it certainly has an interesting alumni club. Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, came out of the company. So did Marco DeMiroz, the former Trinity Ventures partner who is now the CEO at Ractivity. Foundation Capital’s Warren Weiss worked at Next, a Steve Jobs company that got folded into Apple, and Foundation invested in Serious and Calstar products, another company founded by Porat. And building management has been a hole in Foundation’s otherwise solid smart grid portfolio. (EnerNoc, a Foundation company, just recently moved into buildings.)

Energy Monitoring System as SaaS

No Software

The easiest, lowest cost path to energy savings

SeriousEnergy Manager (SEM) is a web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. There is no software and no servers to install, manage or maintain. Gain always-on access to the critical information you need to manage and ensure the energy savings in your building from anywhere, anytime. With SEM, energy savings is not only possible, it’s easy and cost-effective.

SEM works on any computer and operating system with an internet connection, through any internet browser – safely and securely. There is no installation of any software required to begin using SeriousEnergy Manager and start saving energy in your building.

Just log-on to your SeriousEnergy customer dashboard athttp://manager.seriousenergy.com. You do not need to install any additional software to begin using SeriousEnergy Manager.

We do all the work for you. No maintenance is required by your IT managers. We deploy regular updates to SEM for the insight and intelligence you need to optimize your building’s energy performance every day.

With no software to install or maintain, you can be up and running – and save energy and save energy – in no time. You can generate the energy savings and efficiencies that our customers and 60 other buildings have every day.

An easy-to-use online dashboard gives you real-time, always-on visibility into your building’s energy usage – all from a single web-based interface.

SEM provides you with the analysis and controls that will help you save energy and save money – from anywhere, anytime.